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Microsoft faces massive class action suit over Xbox 360

The Supreme Court will hear an appeal from Microsoft on whether a class action suit alleging the Xbox 360 scratches disks should go forward.

The Supreme Court will weigh in on a class-action lawsuit filed against Microsoft that accuses the company of allowing the Xbox 360 to have a design defect that results in scratched disks.

The court will hear an appeal from Microsoft claiming that individual appeals had already been thrown out and there is no reason for the company to face the class action lawsuit, according to an Associated Press report.

A total of 80 million Xbox 360 consoles were sold over the console’s life span, and Microsoft claims that just 0.4 percent of owners ever reported a game disk being scratched — and even then, it was typically because of incorrect use by the consumer, and not a problem with the product.

Plaintiffs had attempted a class action lawsuit back in 2012, but a federal judge threw it out after determining there weren’t enough complaints for a class action suit, but a federal appeals court later said it could go forward.

Last year, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle ruled that the lower court judge had incorrectly applied the law in determining that plaintiffs couldn’t file a class action suit, according to a Reuters report.

The plaintiffs allege that the console’s optical disc drive is poorly designed to handle games, and even small vibrations can ruin a disk.

“Plaintiffs’ breach of express warranty claim presents a common factual question-is there a defect?-and a common mixed question of law and fact-does that defect breach the express warranty?” Circuit Judge Johnnie Rawlinson wrote in the appeals court’s decision. “The district court erred in finding that individual issues of causation predominate over these common questions.”

Despite the overturn of the lower court’s decision, Microsoft expressed confidence that it would win the case. However, with the Supreme Court taking a look at the case, they face a long road ahead.